{"id":2240,"date":"2023-12-21T03:01:23","date_gmt":"2023-12-21T04:01:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/shinsori.me\/?p=2240"},"modified":"2023-12-21T09:00:23","modified_gmt":"2023-12-21T09:00:23","slug":"what-is-a-romance-scam-what-is-catfishing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/shinsori.me\/index.php\/2023\/12\/21\/what-is-a-romance-scam-what-is-catfishing\/","title":{"rendered":"What is a romance scam? What is catfishing?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Alicia<\/p>\n

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Alicia Bultez at her home in Santaquin on Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2023. The 81-year-old woman was the victim of a romance scam.<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/span><\/p>\n

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Spenser Heaps, Deseret News<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

It started with a friend request on Facebook in February. The handsome Army officer stationed abroad liked Alicia Bultez\u2019s profile and wanted to be friends. She accepted. <\/p>\n

Single for seven years, the 81-year-old Bultez was lonely. She craved companionship.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe walls just don\u2019t talk to you,\u201d she said in the living room of the Santaquin home she shares with her aunt and two cousins, where her 10-year-old Pomeranian, Muffin Ann, excitedly scurried around and pictures and a sculpture of Jesus are placed among the Christmas decorations.<\/p>\n

Bultez was flattered that a man in his 60s took interest in her. They messaged back and forth, shared their likes and dislikes, talked about their families, exchanged photos. Right up front, they both agreed they would be totally honest with each other. A romance developed over the next few months. They planned to get married when he returned to the States in August.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought wow. I really liked the way he made me feel. I felt loved. After having three divorces, and not feeling loved, to have someone really love me and care about me and want to do things for me, I was all open for it,\u201d Bultez said, whose main source of income is Social Security.<\/p>\n

Before he returned from overseas, he told her a \u201cportfolio\u201d he was sending home got hung up in customs. He asked her to send $1,500 to a \u201cdiplomat\u201d in Philadelphia who was helping him get it through. She rounded up the money and sent it. Then he told her customs needed another $5,000. She withdrew the money from her small life savings and sent it. But it didn\u2019t stop there. He asked for $40,000. She told him she\u2019d given all she could.<\/p>\n

A check for $95,200 arrived on her doorstep a week or so later. He told her to deposit the money in an IRA at her bank and then send him $40,000. She found out the check bounced when her Latter-day Saint ward Relief Society president insisted they go to the bank together a few days later.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen they told me that at the bank, I just fell apart,\u201d Bultez said, recalling how a teller \u201cjust held me and I cried.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was with the help of her ecclesiastical leaders in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that Bultez learned she was being scammed. They brought in the police. They told her never to contact the Army officer again, and she hasn\u2019t. But it tore her up inside.<\/p>\n

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\"merlin_3010447.jpg\"<\/p>\n

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Alicia Bultez poses for a photo at her home in Santaquin on Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2023. She was the victim of two different scams.<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/span><\/p>\n

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Spenser Heaps, Deseret News<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cI was in such denial and I was hurt and I was angry and I felt all these emotions,\u201d she said as she teared up. \u201cI just put it in the Lord\u2019s hands because there\u2019s nothing more I could do about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bultez is willing to talk about what happened to her, hoping it will prevent others from scrolling into the same trap.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s horrific that people prey on people like that,\u201d said Katie Hass, director of the Utah Division of Consumer Protection<\/a>. \u201cBut I applaud her for overcoming whatever shame she felt to share her story so that other people don\u2019t fall victim.\u201d <\/p>\n

Sadly, Bultez\u2019s story is a familiar one.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do see a lot of romance scams. I think one of the reasons why we see a lot of that, and the surgeon general talked about this, is we have a loneliness epidemic,\u201d Hass said, adding it\u2019s not only women but men who get pulled into those bogus relationships.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think our generation, I\u2019m a generation Xer, we have to take some ownership of the fact that our senior citizens are feeling lonely and they\u2019re not as connected. … We have to recognize that the walls don\u2019t talk to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bultez\u2019s online romance with the Army officer had all the elements of catfishing, the act of creating a false identity to lure people into relationships. Scammers frequently create bogus profiles on dating or other social networking sites to find their victims. Often, they claim to live far away, maybe saying they\u2019re traveling for business or are in the military. That makes it easier to avoid meeting in person \u2014 and more plausible when they ask for money to be sent overseas for a medical emergency or unexpected legal fee.<\/p>\n

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